Hilltown OKs mining extension for H&K quarry until 2040

Monday

Hilltown supervisors on Monday night approved an agreement with Haines & Kibblehouse that would allow the company to continue mining at the Blooming Glen Quarry until 2040.

The new agreement supersedes one reached in 2005, in which H&K said it would halt blasting, crushing and other production in 2020, turning the land along Forest and Quarry roads over to the township once it was refilled, a reclamation process that could take decades.

H&K representatives have said the poor economy left untapped reserves at Blooming Glen, hence the need for extending the life of the quarry.

Hilltown supervisors have been negotiating with H&K for months, to get terms the majority of the board felt were beneficial to the township.

Effective in January, H&K has agreed to pay 35 cents per ton of stone mined and sold from Blooming Glen. In 2021, H&K will pay the township 15 cents per ton of stone mined and sold from the H&K quarry off Skunk Hollow Road. The company would pay Hilltown a minimum of $100,000 a year for quarrying.

The new agreement also adds a reclamation fee, to be recalculated every year. Next year, H&K will pay Hilltown $3 per load of inbound material permanently placed in Blooming Glen.

H&K also agreed to give Hilltown a 15 percent discount on materials the township purchases from the company.

Originally, H&K had been seeking the ability to continue blasting and crushing until 2045; the revised agreement gives them the ability to continue mining work for 15 years beyond 2020, until 2035, paying a $12,500 annual surcharge for the extension. If H&K does not violate its agreement with the township, it can add another five years of mining, paying a $25,000 a year surcharge annually until 2040.

Once mining has ceased, H&K has agreed to turn the quarry land over to the township, with a 10-acre recreational lake.

Supervisors Jim Groff and Barb Salvadore said they were pleased with the terms of the agreement, voting to allow the extension.

“I think it’s a very good deal for the township,” Groff said.

Salvadore said she likes that it will be a sustainable source of revenue for Hilltown for years to come, and that the future lake will be like a “safety valve” for the township’s water supply.

Jack McIlhinney voted against the amended agreement, concerned that the reclamation process could take more than a century, and that the recreational lake is a “red herring” masking the quarry’s true motives.

“None of us is going to be around to see the lake,” he said. “What this really comes down to, it’s all about money, how much money to change what 13 hearings 10 years ago decided.”

Representatives said they have no way of accurately calculating how long the reclamation process will take, since it depends on how often customers come with loads of clean fill to dump at the site.

“I don’t have that crystal ball,” said Joe LaFlame, H&K’s lawyer.

Hilltown residents were against extending the life of the quarry, with many expressing concerns over water supply. H&K representatives say they have permits to pump more than 1.5 million gallons of water a day at the Blooming Glen quarry, and about 1 million gallons a day at the Skunk Hollow quarry.

Ivan Jurin wanted to know how the township would be able to reclaim that water, during the decades-long gap until the recreational lake is created.

Another resident expressed concerns about the fact that there was no set end date for reclamation of the quarry, asking the supervisors to reject the agreement and come up with stronger language.

“This could just keep things going and going and going,” he said. “I think this is a joke.”